Purgatory
Purgatory (Danish: Purgatorio or Skærsilden) (from Latin: Purgatorium "cleansing", via Anglo-Norman and Old French. Italian: Purgatorio), is a mountain made entirely out of black, perpetually burning fire, located just outside Hell, which the condemned who truly repent their sins may ascend to become cleansed of their crimes by the flames. The mountain is not part of Hell, but instead its neighbor, although it is within the walls encircling Hell. It lies beyond the Ice River, which marks the end of Hell, after a stretch of barren mountainous landscape covered in gravel, with large cliffs rising in places and winding paths. On this barren mountain landscape it is completely quiet, which is a big contrast to the screaming, whip-cracking and hiss of fire heard in Hell. The mountain rises from a deep chasm filled with black fire like the one the mountain is made of, and the air around it is filled with pitch-black light, which glitters like the darkness between stars and lights the mountainsides that form the walls of Hell and creates strange, white shadows in their crevasses. The pit is reached by turning the corner of a crag on the barre, silet mountain that lies before it. A steep staircase of flame winds around the mountain seven times, reaching all the way to the top. The fire of Purgatory burns the bodies of the repenting condemned with great pain, it can be walked upon and will carry anything alive or dead. At the peak of the mountain, the flames forms a saircase made of smoke, rising up into Paradise. If the condemned are fully cleansed and the stairs are able to carry them, they may ascend to Paradise, but if it can't, they will drop through the staircase, will fall to the ground and will have to start over from the bottom. Some of the repenting humans struggling up the steep stairs move quickly, taking long steps streching over three steps at a time, while others crawl at a snail's pace, going one step back with every two steps forward. Most of them are shrouded in black flames from top to bottom, while others only burn partly in the torso, the arms, or the hair. A rank smell of rot, the smell of sins burning, hang in the air. It is forbidden for the devils of Hell to go to Purgatory. After the banishment of Aziel Stofeles to Outer Reach, speaking his name became forbidden, and anyone who was discovered doing it was sent to Purgatory on orders of Lucifer. History The Devil's Apprentice The Die of Death Known people who has been in Purgatory * Grumblebeard (formerly). Grumblebeard was sentenced to 150 years in Purgatory for having poisoned the the gragorn Bucklehorn S. Erpant a 150 years ago with a sleeping potion which he had received in an envelope, along with a letter, in which an anonymous sender revealed, that they knew of Grumblebeard had wished for the position as gatekeeper of Hell (he had wanted it for 120 years, while hating his position as executor), and claimed to be able to give it to him. In the letter, he was instructed to pour the sleeping potion into Bucklehorn's mug of blood. The devil who had written the letter would be revealed, 150 years later, to be the mother of the devil Aziel Stofeles, and she used Bucklehorn's sleep to help a condemned, a specially dark soul, escape through the gates of Hell, away from Hell and out into the darkness of Outer Reach. Together, they had their son, the devil Aziel Stofeles. Grumblebeard chose to turn himself in to Lucifer 150 years later and ask for forgiveness, after Philip Engel and Satina Dargue had discovered the demon's crime in the Globe of Evil and confronted him with it. When it was revealed that Grumblebeard did not know that the condemned would escape, Lucifer reconsidered Grumblebeard's punishment and decided to pardon him, sending his cat, Lucifax, to release Grumblebeard. The 150 years that Lucifer had sentenced Grumblebeard to coresponded to the number of years the gatekeeper had spent in the position without his crime being discovered. * Epicurus. A Greek philosopher, whose teachings did a lot of service to Hell, and for that reason a portrait of him came to hang on the Wall of Pain in Hell. Epicurus believed that humanity should do whatever it wants and pursue pleasure. Pleasure, also known as lust, is one of the seven deadly sins, and for having committed it, Epicurus ended in Purgatory after his death, although not in Hell as he had meant what he said well. He had also said that if one's pursuit of pleasure would harm others, or oneself, in a longer timeframe, one should refrain from purusing it. His adherents, the Epicureans, however, used his teachings as an excuse for loafing around and living in the lap of luxury, and for this they now toil forever under the whip in Hell. Epicurus also had things to say about death, as he believed there was no reason to fear it, as humans never co-existed with death, and as such he believed that death was final, that there was no afterlife, and that the terrors of Hell was nothing but fabrication. He was wrong about this. Epicurus walks up the mountain while his mouth is on fire. Appearances The Great Devil War * The Devil's Apprentice (The light from Purgatory's fire appears, and the location is mentioned) * The Die of Death * The Wrongful Death (Mentioned) References Category:Locations Category:Hell